October 26th – November 5th: Day 10-19 in Paris and Normandy

Yes, I understand that there are a lot of days to cover due to my lack of blog posts, but I will try to sum them up for you the best that I can. 

Update on Grace’s Suitcase: It is officially LOST.  Yes, lost.  When I said all was figured out in my last post, what I meant was we had been in contact with United Airlines who had told us that her bag had never left Phoenix, Arizona, where Grace flew out.  They said that it would be on the next flight to Paris and would be delivered to us the following morning.   It was that following night that we again got in contact with the airlines who then said that it was marked that her bag had still not left Phoenix, however its location was unknown, making the bag officially lost.  And as fun as buying a whole new wardrobe in Paris sounds, it’s the exact opposite when it comes to my sister.  She is a very picky shopper on the best of days, so the replacement shopping was a little more than stressful. 

Stressful Luggage story #2: When we bought Grace a new suitcase, we decided that for our drive from Paris to Normandy my mom would put all of the gifts for people that she had bought in Italy and Paris would go in Grace’s new bag because she thought they would be safer that way.  That meant that Grace’s one pair of jeans and three two shirts would go in an extra duffle bag that we had brought with us, which at that point grace could care less which bag her few items went in as long as they stayed with her.  On the way to Normandy my family and I stopped at Monet’s Garden to go on a tour while our friends/traveling companions, Richard and Charlene decided to keep driving in their separate van to Normandy.  Let me remind you again that there are ten of us.  Five of that being my family and me, six with my Grandfather, eight with Shane and his mom, and ten with Richard and Charlene.  So picture ten people, two vans, and over twenty bags.  Yes, twenty.   So, of course some of the bags had to go in the van only carrying two people rather than all of them in the van carrying eight.  So, that left Grace’s new bag, carrying hundreds of dollars worth of my Mother’s gifts to go in Richard and Charlene’s van sitting on top of some other suitcases.  While Richard and Charlene left us at Monet’s to continue on their drive, a slight problem occurred. When they were driving down the highway the back of their van opened.  When they realized this they turned around and picked up everything that they could see had fallen out.  The issue was that they did not see that Grace’s new suitcase had fallen out.  When we all met up at our house in Normandy later that night, we unloaded both cars and realized what had happened.  After calling the local French Police, and having our incredibly sweet tour guide from Monet’s garden drive along the highway looking for Grace’s bag, it was never found.  The reason we did not drive back and look was because it was two hours from our house.  You can say Mom was not very happy that night.  However, we are not going to let Satan ruin our trip with some baggage trouble, as inconvenient as it may be.  The trip must go on!

Fun Stuff: The Segway tour in Paris was incredible as expected.  They are always a blast and I highly recommend them to anyone going anywhere that offers them.  I always learn more than I expected to learn and it is information that sticks with you forever.  As far as Paris, if you are the slightest bit interested in the Revolutionary War of Napoleon Bonaparte I would absolutely go on a Segway tour because they are pretty much based on them, as they should be.  Here are some pictures from the tour:

            Monet’s Garden on the way to our house in Normandy was very beautiful of course.  My Dad is a huge fan of Monet so this tour was extra special for him, but all of us enjoyed it.  It really is true that when you walk on the bridge over the pond from his most famous works, you really do feel as if you are apart of the painting itself.  It was a really great experience!

            Our first full day of Normandy has probably been one of my favorite if not top favorite days of our whole trip.  The whole day was spent driving along the coastline looking out at the beaches of Normandy, which are very breathtaking, and visiting different Museums on WWII and D-Day.  It is very hard to try to picture that just 70 years ago those beaches portrayed a very different sight.  We started with The American Cemetery at Omaha Beach.  That was one of the most moving experiences I have ever had in my entire life.  There are many different ways for people to learn about history, and I love all of Miss Herring’s classes with all my heart because she is easily the best History teacher I will ever have in my opinion.  However,  sitting in class and listening to her explain what D-day was, and then standing on Omaha beach where some men parachuted themselves to their death and standing in the cemetery where 100’s and 100’s of them are respectfully buried are two very different experiences.  I think as a teenager especially it is a little difficult to really try to visualize WWII or any war for that matter happening, since we ourselves haven’t experienced anything like it in our lifetime.  However, this experience made it very really to me.  There is a museum right next to the Cemetery that explains everything about D-day that if anyone is ever in Normandy I would say that they HAVE to go to.  It is very moving.  And the way it works out is that you start in the museum and end in the Cemetery.   My favorite quote from the Museum was the very last thing you saw before exiting the Museum and entering the Cemetery. 

“If ever proof were needed that we fought for a cause and not for conquest it could be found in these cemeteries.  Here was our only conquest: All we asked… Was enough…  Soil in which to bury our gallant dead.” - General Mark W. Clark – Chairman, American Battle Monuments Comission, 1969-1984

            After that we stopped at another small museum up the rode that had more visual scenes set up along with a couple tanks and some equipment used during the war.  After that we went to a 360 degree movie about WWII.  It was about 16 minutes long and was the most heartbreaking thing I had ever watched.  It was nothing but real footage from WWII with everything from the war itself to the aftermath and what has become of Normandy now.  That too I highly recommend. 

            The next couple days were pretty relaxing.  On one day the main thing we did was visit a cider farm where they make some of Normandy’s best apple cider.  The next day (today) we visited a Copper workshop where the best copper pots in the world are made.  For those of you that didn’t know, Normandy is the home of copper.  That was very interesting.  The end of our day was spent at a very cool castle/village known as Mont Saint-Michel.  That was incredible and very beautiful.  It really is amazing to think of the base that being built 709.

Well, until next time, Adieu!

-Emma

October 25th-28th: Day 6, 7, 8 & 9 in Italy and Paris

As we ended our time in Italy, we decided to save one of the biggest crowd pleasers for last.  Repeating what we did the last time we were in Italy, my family and I drove to Modena on our way from Florence to Torino and made a long stop at the Ferrari Factory on the way.  I personally hate stopping on ‘road trips’ because I like to get to places fast without any interruptions.  However, this time I was willing to make an exception. It came to our attention that the Ferrari Factory was holding a special exhibit for the 100^th anniversary of Maserati.  The Maserati exhibit was held at Enzo Ferrari’s (the inventor of Ferraris) house.  This was quite the experience!  The exhibit had two parts to it:  One part was a huge uniquely shaped building holding about 20 Maserati’s, each one a different year and style and the other part was Enzo’s house connected to a garage that was his fathers workshop.    Although, there were some very interesting things that I learned as far as Enzo and his life.

The classic California T

1.     In a room of his house are pictures of Enzo and his father.  When you look around in the room you will notice that there are purple lights lining the walls all along the floor.  This is interesting because there was a reason for those lights being purple.  It was explained that back when Enzo’s father would write letters to people, before typing it out on a typewriter, he would first hand write it on the back of envelopes in ink.  When those old letters would get wet the ink would bleed and turn into this beautiful purple color. When Enzo’s father died he started a tradition of signing everything in a purple pen in memory of his father.

2.     The second interesting thing I learned was why a horse is the main symbol on Ferrari’s logo.  Enzo had a friend who raced horses for quite some time.  In the midst of designing cars, Enzo was speaking with this friend’s Mother who said “Enzo, why don’t you start putting my son’s prancing horse on your car? It will bring you good luck.”.  Thus, creating the Ferrari logo.  As for the colors, the green, white, and red stripes represent the Italian flag.  As for the yellow background, even though it is not the most appealing color, it is the color of Modena, the city he is from and the home of the Ferrari invention itself.

(insert pictures of cars)

When we were finished with Enzo's house we drove about 10 minutes to the actual Ferrari factory where we saw one of every Ferrari models ever made. 

1938 Maserati Tipo 8CTF- This specific model won two Indy-500s

After saying our goodbyes to beautiful Italy, my family and I had to transition to “Merci” rather than “Grazie”.  I have to say it was a rough transition for the first day.  We arrived in Paris, France by train yesterday morning (the 27^th) and checked into our beautiful apartment with happy hearts when realizing that along with staying on the 6^th floor comes a breath taking view of the one and only Eiffel Tower.  

(insert picture of view from room)

I will never get sick of this view

View from the train

            Not much has gotten done within these first two days.  However, our family was completed this morning when my sister Grace finally arrived here from Phoenix, Arizona.  Although, unfortunately her luggage did not arrive with her… so of course that led to quite the interesting morning.  Yet, all is well and figured out.  Yesterday just consisted of us adjusting to our surroundings and resting up.  As for today we walked around Paris and explored some cool shops (and bakeries…. Of Course!) over the course of about 7 miles.  Tomorrow is when the real fun starts.  The agenda as of right now consists of possibly visiting the Picpus Cemetery where Lafayette is buried, as well as a 3 hour long Segway tour.  We went on a Segway tour at night 6 years ago when we were here and it was the highlight of my trip, so you can say there are some pretty high expectations for tomorrow.  Of course, either way I’m sure it will be incredible.  How bad can it be? It’s Paris!  I’ll make sure to post tomorrow with pictures from the tour.  Until then, Adieu!

-Emma

Outside of one of the most famous butcher shops in the world

October 22nd-24th: Day 3, 4, & 5 in Italy

These past 3 days have been a very memorable experience! They were filled with a lot of driving time through Tuscany, which is never a bad thing.  Volpaia (where we’re staying) is located about an hour away from Florence. Yet, all around Volpaia are these little towns such as Greve, Panzano, and Radda Chianti.  All of these towns are about 20-30 minutes from each other spread all throughout Tuscany. 

Our beautiful drive

 The story behind the place we are staying at is incredibly interesting as a matter of fact.  Volpaia was built in 1172 during a dispute between Florence and Siena.  It has some interesting history behind it, however what it has become now is just as interesting.  A woman whose name cannot be pronounced by anyone who is not Italian, was given the huge property of Volpaia as a wedding gift from her Father when she was 20 years old.  He parents own(ed) a publishing company in Florence which was given to their son as a gift.  So, naturally as a wedding gift, she was given a town.  In a course of about 50 years she has created an incredible olive oil and wine distributor with her property, growing and producing it all on Volpaia’s land.  

A few other things we have done since Wednesday is re-visiting the statue of David.  By re-visit I have seen it once before, although it was just as incredible this time as it was the first. 

 Along with that we also visited the breathtakingly beautiful Duomo Church in Florence. Thursday afternoon my family and I enjoyed a terrific meal at Da Delfinos located right across from a hunting house and in the midst of an olive farm.  

Sadly almost no olive oil will be produced from Italy this year due to a bug infestation in almost all of the olives all throughout Italy.  What this came from is too much rain.  To much rain brought out bugs which chewed their way into an abundance of the olives.  Yet, the bug itself is not what ruined the olives, it’s the hole that the bugs created when going into the olive.  The hole created cause moister to enter the olives causing a acidic taste in all of the olives, therefore, they cannot be used to make olive oil.  

It is sad really, to think about all of the businesses over here and how much money they will lose just in one year.  It is safe to say that my family and I are enjoying our time in Italy! 

-Emma

Day 2 in Italy: Tuesday, October 21st

             This morning I woke up in Volpaia at the house we are staying at. The house sits on the property of an old castle located on the top of a hill.  The whole little town, if it can be called that, is incredible.  No picture can do it justice, although I tried.  We all woke up and walked to the little cafe near our house and had cappuccinos and some delicious apple cake.  In the process of doing so, my Grandpa introduced us to a man he had met earlier that morning when he got to the cafe before all of us.  The man’s name was Robert.  Robert is from Seattle, Washington and he has been to Volpaia about 11 times.  It is one of his favorited places on earth.  He loves it so much that he wrote a book about it including some of the people from here.  He also has an incredible talent for singing.  After breakfast he took us across the street to the church to give us a 3 minute private concert. He chose the church because he wanted us to get the full experience of his voice with the echoes from the building.  He was a fantastic singer.  Oh, and did I mention that Robert is 84 years old?  

Robert and my Grandpa

             After exploring Volpaia for a little bit we drove about 45 minutes to another breathtaking castle.  When we were there we shopped around for a little and had lunch at a place a friend of ours had recommended.  After our delicious meal we drove to Siena.  At around 7 we decided to go to a restaurant that our housekeeper had recommended to us.  However, after driving for an hour we all gave up and decided to just drive back to Volpaia and eat bread, cheese, salami, and fruit…… for the second night in a row.  

-Emma

Day 1 in Italy: Monday, October 20th

          My family and I arrived in Italy this morning at about 8:30AM after having been traveling for a little over 24 hours.  I am traveling with 8 other people, soon to be 9 when my sister joins us in a about a week in Paris, so right now there are a total of 9 people on this trip. Those 9 include my Mother, Father, my brother Lorin, Lorin’s best friend Shane, Shane’s mom, Tonya, and our good family friends, Richard and Charlene.  When we landed at the airport in Milan, Italy, after gathering all of our luggage, we made our way to the Avis Rental Car station with the hope that they had the 9 passenger van we had previously reserved.  Luckily they had it, so we loaded up all of our luggage and piled into the car to started our journey from Milan to the place we are staying. 

I love this view

The place we are staying is called Volpaia, which is right outside of Firenze (Florence) located about 4 hours from Milan. It was a long drive after traveling on a plane for 12+ hours.  We were about 2.5 hours into our journey when our lovely stick shift van started to act up and make some interesting noises.  When we pulled over on the side of the freeway my Dad tried to put the car in reverse, and of course nothing happened.  We rolled the windows down and smelt something burning so we all got out of the car immediately.  We believe that our transmission blew out, however, we still do not know for sure.  We ended up waiting about an hour for the tow truck to show up.  Now keep in mind that we are in the middle of Italy with my Grandfather who speaks Spanish, which is similar to Italian but also very different, as well as our friend Charlene who attempts to speak the 30+ words that she knows. Thus meaning that it is extremely difficult for any of us to communicate with anyone unless it is relating to food, since that is what we pretty much came here for.  As we explained to the tow truck driver what had happened he proceeded to hook up our car to his truck, along with all of us in the van.  This, my friends, was 100% illegal, but you gotta do what you gotta do, right?  Our only other options were to:

Our car adventure

1. Sit on the side of the freeway with all of our luggage and wait for 3 taxis to drive over an hour to get us and take us the rest of the way to Florence.
2. Have one person ride with the tow truck driver back to his shop, then take a taxi to the Florence airport (1.5 hours away) to pick up our new rental car, and then back to get us all.  
3. To all ride in the van in the back of the tow truck back to the tow truck place to get into a different van and be driven to the Florence airport to switch into a new van and carry on to the house we were booked to stay at.

So, naturally we went with option 3, which happened to be one of the scariest, most fun, and most memorable experiences of my entire life.  As most people may see this as being one of the worst things that could happen to them, I, in a weird way, enjoyed it.  It was quite the experience!

-Emma